With the growing popularity of LED lighting, more and more people are looking to retrofit their existing recessed lighting with LED bulbs.

John recently wrote a post on converting your recessed lights into LEDs that featured these energy-efficient LED retrofit kits on February 27th. In the meantime, our the team from the Lamps Plus Professionals side attended a trade show. They had a booth with these retrofit kits actually installed. They were really enthusiastic about how well these recessed modules work and came back with some pretty exciting additional information:

They are dimmable.

They consume only 12 watts of power but produce the equivalent wattage of a 65 watt reflector or an 18 watt compact fluorescent.

Their bulb life is 50,000 hours, 5 times that of most compact fluorescents.

That means that if you use these lights an average of 5 hours a day, the bulbs could last over 25 years!

I like how they placed the flowers right in front of the mirror. That really maximizes the color impact. I want to try that at home with mirrored glass candlesticks and a floral table arrangement. Find them both in our home decor collection.

IWhat's a better way to learn how to accessorize your home than a workshop?

f you live near our Lamps Plus Chatsworth store in Southern California, we invite you to attend our Decorating with Accessories "Ask the Expert" workshop from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on March 27.

Interior design expert Thea Myerly will reveal the secrets for adding sparkle and glamour to home decor without breaking the bank. Myerly, of Moorpark, CA, is a designer with more than 20 years of interior design, management, and education experience.

You'll learn the basics of how to choose accessories, where to place them, and how to create trend-setting rooms that reflect personal style. You can register online here to reserve a seat. We hope to see you there!

Since we shifted over to daylight savings, I have been having trouble getting up in the morning. My room is so dark that I would rather keep on sleeping than start the day.

And it's a blaring shock to the system when I turn on the nightstand light. I need some kind of in-between light for those sleepy transition points. I'd like to install a dimmer on the light next to my bed. That way I can add just a little bit of light to get me up without the unpleasant cringe. A writer for the Chicago Sun Times recommends the use of sconces.